Peasant Stratification, Their Preference Of Land Property Rights And Rural Land Tenure

Some land policies and regulations issued by the central government has been violated in rural China since peasants' preference has been neglected in the process of law-making. Rural people do not completely recognize the authority of rules and law, which leads to difficulties in their execution. In fact, peasants have their own views about land tenure and when these views are in conflict with land policies, sometimes the government has to make a compromise, which shows peasants' preference has an impact on land institution arrangement. In recent years peasant stratification has attracted more and more attention but mostly from sociologists who do not notice the impact of peasant stratification on peasants' choice of land property rights. The stratification of peasants in their economic conditions and political status might have an impact on their views on rural institution arrangements. Especially their preference of property rights of land which is the most important natural resource owned by rural collective, might be different. At the same time, the willingness to express their views and their political influence on land property right arrangements are different. With the enforcement of village autonomy and village democracy, peasant households with different interests might exert more complex influence on land institution arrangements. This paper studies on the impact of peasant stratification on their preference of land property rights and the process of contracting for property rights.In the second chapter, the influence of traditional culture on rural land institution has been explained. After the current rural land property rights has been introduced in Chapter 3, in the forth chapter the problem of peasant stratification and its relation with peasants' preference of land property rights and the process of contracting for property rights are analyzed. In the last part of the paper, empirical analysis is conducted and the result shows the heterogeneity of land property rights arrangement between different villages and groups, which indicates that peasants has some influence on land institution arrangement. Peasant households have quite similar views on land rights except inheritance and mortgage right, which shows peasants' preference is somewhat determined by previous institution arrangements. Statistical analysis shows their preference is also related to conditions of thehousehold head (age, year of education, etc.), characteristics of household (dependency ratio, etc.), rate of income from non-agricultural jobs. Some suggestions are proposed: peasants' preference and innovation should be recognized and peasants should be encouraged to participate in the process of contracting for land property rights; If the government wants to guarantee the effectiveness of land policies and regulations, it should make great efforts to inform peasants of the benefit of policies.